Dasara is here. The city will cover itself with light and gaiety in the celebration of this festival from Sept. 21 to Sept. 30. Lakhs of people will converge on this city testing its infrastructure and ability to feed as many mouths with Dasara special delicacies. Personally I feel that of the over 40 Dasara…
70 Years of Democracy: Saluting the Majority and Minorities of India
August 14, 2017“Indians may have a vote but they are not represented.” —David Selbourne, Journalist A diplomat is one who remembers the birthday of a woman but forgets the year of her birth. So goes a joke on diplomats. Our immediate past Vice-President Hamid Ansari seems to have forgotten this diplomat’s credo, himself having been an…
50 years of Freedom and Failures
August 13, 2017Going back 20 years, on this 70th year of our Independence, Star of Mysore produces here the Abracadabra published on 14th Aug. 1997, the eve of India’s 50th year of independence, for your reading pleasure.—Ed This is an occasion for important magazines and newspapers all over the world to write about India’s 50 years of…
MOTHER
August 8, 2017There cannot be a more beautiful and unforgettable word in english language, for that matter in any language, than the word MOTHER. A mother’s love for her child from its birth to the end of her life is unparalleled, unconditional and non-negotiable; no matter how bad her child is. He could be a king but…
Panama Papers: The ghost of corruption will destabilise our country one day and then… – 2
August 4, 2017The Supreme Court of Pakistan not only heard the Panama Papers case in a fast-track trial that lasted just 15 months but also ensured that Nawaz Sharif does not stay in power. This apart, the Pak Apex Court constituted another Investigating Committee to go deep into the case, investigate and punish all those who are…
Panama Papers: The ghost of corruption will destabilise our country one day and then… – 1
August 3, 2017Therefore, the decision taken by the Pakistan Supreme Court in the Panama Papers Scandal is worth emulating by our courts and our law makers. The Pak court heard the case and pronounced the verdict in just 15 months. Is this possible in our country? On July 28 2017, the Supreme Court of Pakistan gave a…
News that drove me back to Bombay: Is it possible to live and die like Krishna Raj?!
July 28, 2017As a journalist my academic diet has been newspapers. Missing a day’s newspaper (not TV or Radio) is like missing a day’s meal. Of the many news, sometimes some news items tend to evoke memories of the past with such emotion and nostalgia I get lost in a mystical reverie. Such a news I read…
India’s Politician-Statesman Nitish Kumar
July 27, 2017The ‘Mahaghatbandhan’ in Bihar has collapsed. In a stunning development that has taken everyone by surprise, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar submitted his resignation to Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi last night. However, by way quirk of fate, today he is back as the Chief Minister by other means. He was sworn-in for the sixth time…
Born Free, yet we are in chains everywhere !
July 17, 2017Musings on Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Supreme Court I often shudder to think what would happen to our Right to Free Speech and Expression if Courts were not there to rein in the governments that become autocratic. Before the Liberalisation and booming Information Technology sector, there was our Constitution giving us protection for…
Thus Spake Justice N. Santosh Hegde
July 12, 2017How to fix India’s problem? I have no escape from Mahatma Gandhi while I write about Justice N. Santosh Hegde, presently the conscience-keeper of Karnataka, just as Anna Hazare of Maharashtra — both are relentlessly fighting to eradicate corruption in our Government and society. Mahatma Gandhi had declared long before we got our independence that…
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